Monday, December 6, 2010

Alter Call

The "Walk the Aisle" or "Alter Call" was at the end of sermons was when all the sinners walked down the aisle to the front of the church to ask for prayers for salvation.  Preachers also used it to see how people reacted to their sermon.  At my church (North Garland Church of Christ) my preacher at the end of each service says if anyone wants to come down and have someone pray for them or if they want to be baptized in the name of Christ, so i think this is a good thing.  But calling people to come down so people can see who are the sinners is a wrong thing, and to see how people reacted to your sermon isnt a good thing to do cause your pretty much just using the people.
"was necessary to bring [sinners] out from among the mass of the ungodly to a public renunciation of their sinful ways." This is what Charles Finney said.  Its wrong, dont ya think?  Cause we all deal with the same problems, so that means all of us would have to walk up to the front cause we all sin daily.  So if your church does this "Alter Call" or "Walk the Aisle" is fine i think, but you have to figure why your preacher and church do it, if its for the right reason then yes, but if its for the wrong reason then its a bad reason.  An i think my church does it for a good reason.

6 comments:

  1. Blaine I agree that it is wrong to use people to judge a sermon or to use as gossip during the altar call.

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  2. I have to disagree I think that it is wrong to call people to the front. I think that some people use this just so that they can show off to other people that they are "Godly".

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  3. Bline I Agree It is good to call people to the front good job.

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  4. I'm not really partial to either side here, Blaine. It could be a good thing or bad, depending on the motives of the preacher or the congregation.

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  5. You are right Blaine: it all depends on the motive of why you are doing the Alter Call. It can be good or also bad. I am glad your church uses it in a good way!

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  6. I agree that it can be used to judge people. I don't think most churches do that but yeah, it can be done.

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